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Recovered Species Monitoring Program A species is considered "recovered" when it no longer needs protection under the Endangered Species Act. The factors that initially led to its list- ing must be remedied so as to no longer jeopardize the species contin- ued survival. Recovery is much more complex than just increasing the species' numbers. Legal as well as biological factors are relevant to species recovery. Recovery of many species requires concerted efforts on the part of Federal and State authori- ties, as well as private parties, to en- act laws and regulations and to reach agreements to protect listed species independent of the Endangered Species Act. Without the stringent limitation on activities adversely af- fecting listed species that protection under the Act provides, "biologically" recovered species may still need the Act's protection in order to sustain population levels. Only when adequate legal mechanisms in- dependent of the Act are implemented to manage a listed species whose populations have re- covered can the species be truly said to no longer require Endangered Species Act protection and thus be considered for delisting. The 1988 amendments to the Act rec- ognized this potential conflict involv- ing recovered species and removal from the protective oversight of the Act. Section 4 of the Act was amended by adding a provision that requires the Secretary, acting in coop- eration with State governments, to implement a system for monitoring recovered species for at least five years after they are removed from the protected lists. In the event of a "sig- nificant risk to the well being" of any such species, the Secretary must use his emergency authority under sec- tion 4(b)(7) to relist the species. Endangered Species Act (1988 Amendments) Compliance The Service issued internal guidance for compliance with the 1988 amend- ments to the Endangered Species Act on May 25, 1989. The guidance in- cluded categories for tracking Service expenditures for recovery. The Service tracks and reports on listed species in an existing database main- tained in-house. A new data field has been added to that database to track species by status categories (e.g., Improving, Stable, Declining, Unknown, Extinct). Endangered Species Expenditures Report Twenty-eight Federal agencies were contacted for an accounting of the recovery expenditures by species dur- ing FY 89. Through the International During 1990, seven California condor chicks were born in captivity. Due to the success of the Fish and Wildlife Service's captive breeding effort, California con- dors may be released into the wild as early as 1991. Association of Fish and Wildlife Agencies, the Service compiled State expenditures for endangered species expenditures during FY 89. All of the information was compiled into a re- port to Congress entitled "Federal and State Endangered Species Expenditures," dated January 1990. The second annual report of endan- gered species expenditures, dated January 1991, presented expenditures of the Service, other Federal agencies, and State agencies for the conserva- tion of endangered and threatened species. Service Guidance-Recovery Program Implementation The Service's "Policy and Guidelines for Planning and Coordinating Recovery of Endangered and Threatened Species," was revised and distributed Servicewide during May 1990. The revision addresses the re- quirements of the 1988 Amendments to the Endangered Species Act, the General Accounting Office's December 1988 report, "Endangered Species Management: Improvements Could Enhance Recovery Program," and the desire of the Service to make the guidance more useful and consis- tent with current policy. 9 An aquatic biologist collects yellowfin madtom eggs and fry in Tennessee for labora- tory propagation and research as part of a joint Federal/State effort which reestab- lished a population of the species in Virginia.